‘Experience and The Girl’ reviewed by Gordon the Optom

‘Experience and The Girl’ is the latest work by Sydney artist Randa Sayed. This 1-hour, adults only Australian Premiere, can be seen as part of Fringeworld at The Blue Room Theatre Studio. The season has four performances, each show is nightly at 7.30, until Saturday 13th February.

This bold, confrontational and wild comedy is presented by Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights and Circlestances Productions – under Jay Emmanuel as producer.

Randa is touring the Australian fringes with this delightful show that was ten years in the making.

The stage is black, the only prop being a handbag crammed with unusual items. The lighting and sound operator was Daley King.

The Sydney bus sways through Redfern, and a young Arab Muslim woman (Randa Sayed) in her late teens / early twenties, notices an Indian lad admiring her. With such a strict upbringing and so many austere religious codes controlling her life, she has never thought about men. That night in bed she started to think about what she was missing, and the consequences of becoming like her heroes, Beyoncé or Kim.

Unfortunately, her imagination is well ahead of her practical skills, this poor frustrated girl cannot even say ‘Hello’ to a boy, but will she change? Is there even the slightest chance of her getting a man?

By combining this piece of interactive acting and theatre sports, Randa has created her own new genre. Although this was a very funny, multi-layered, comedy, there was always that an undertone of sadness, as this girl who was highly religious – at times with tears in her eyes – wanted to be like other girls of her age, but was torn by loyalty and religion.

Over the whole act, Brigitta Brown did a magnificent, flawless voiceover revealing Randa’s thoughts and desires. With Brigitta’s pace and enunciation, I thought that this was a carefully recorded backing track; the live voice, however, added to the freshness of the performance.

Randa had superb mime movements and an amusingly expressive face. The whole act was filled with energy and action as the actor moved around the stage.

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Gordon is widely recognised as one of the most prolific theatre reviewers in Perth. He patrons all kinds of live theatre productions, from professional to amateur, and has probably been to more opening nights than The Queen